Taking Back The World! (A Pacific Rim and Raleigh Becket Fanfic)

....The Drift

    OH MY GODD!!! I love you all so much right now!!! +200 readers, are you kidding me?! Because of this monumentous moment, and the fact that it's my birthday today, here's the next chapter early!! Please enjoy and love it as much as I do! This is the chapter that changes everything!

DISCLAIMER: I only own Lieutenant Lila Yale and my own twist on the story. Everything else goes to the awesome makers of Pacific Rim.

PLEASE COMMENT, VOTE AND RATE!!! PPLLEEAASSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My time in Sydney was coming to a close, with Christmas and New Years just around the corner. Striker Eureka was back in tip top shape for the next Kaiju attack. I had long ago updated the OS and fitted the new mods on the Jaeger. Now I was trying to buy myself some more time. I wasn’t quite ready to leave Sydney, or the Ranger I’d come to care about.

    Chuck and I weren’t dating, by any means. But we were extremely close. He wanted me to stay for the holidays, to ‘enjoy a good Aussie Christmas’ as he put it. Even Herc seemed keen on me staying put for a while.

    “Ready to come back to Anchorage, Lieutenant?” Stacker Pentecost asked me one day during our monthly vid-comms.

    Straightening my back, I took a deep breath as I readied myself for the barrage of negativity at the request I was going to ask for.

    “With all due respect, sir, I‘d like to extend my stay till after the new year.” I said formally. The Marshall only rose an eyebrow, a grin tweaking at the side of his lips faintly.

    “And why is that?” His voice held some amusement.
   
    “The Hansen‘s have offered to have me for the holidays.” I continued.

    “Really?” He contemplated it for a whole 16 seconds. Not that I was counting.

    “That‘s a good idea, Lila.” I couldn’t hide the smile on my face as I saluted him.

    “Merry Christmas, sir.”

    “You as well.” He saluted back and the vid-comm ended.

    The door to the room couldn’t open fast enough as I skipped through the doorframe and checked the hall for the Hansen that I knew would be waiting for me.

    “Well?” Yet again, I couldn’t hide my smile from Chuck as I walked up to him with a spring in my step.

    “I‘m staying.” His smile grew as he swooped me up in his arms.

    “Yahoo!” Chuck shouted as he spun me around.

    “Would you put me down?” I laughed. That boy loved picking me up too much. When my feet touched the floor, he placed a swift kiss on my lips.

    “Your going to love Australian Christmas, Lila.” Turning in Chuck’s grip, I faced Herc with a raised eyebrow, but still smiling.

    “You too, Herc? Don‘t let your son rub such bad habits off on you.” I slapped said son on the chest as I mentioned him.

    “What do you want for Christmas?” Chuck ducked low to be level with me and was staring straight in my eyes as he asked. I leaned away from his face and he just kept leaning closer. I finally pushed him away, chuckling.

    “I don‘t do presents, Chuck.” I waved my hands in front of my face.

    “Oh come on, there‘s gotta be something you want?” At his insinuation, he shot his eyebrows up a few times and gave me a suggestive wink. I rolled my eyes and slugged his shoulder.

    “The point of getting a girl presents is to watch her, see what she likes, then surprise her.” Herc said, slinging his arm around his son’s shoulder.

    When they stood side by side, you could really see their resemblance.

    “Quit planning right in front of me.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I gave both the men a chilled look.

    “Fine then, your dismissed.” Herc said, grinning as he gave me a shooing motion with his hand.

    “You can‘t dismiss me, I‘m not one of you-” I started to protest when Herc did the motion again.

    “March on, soldier.”

    “Fine.” I grunted, turning on my heels.

    “A good solider knows when she‘s been replaced.” I shouted over my shoulder as I started walking away.

    “See you later!” Chuck called, throwing an arm over his shoulder in goodbye as him and his equally conniving dad walked the opposite direction.

    “Those two, I swear.” I mumbled, shaking my head.

    “Lila!” Someone shouted my name as I was walking past the hanger.

    Stopping to see who it was, I saw it was one of the head tech’s on maintenance. Him and I worked hand in hand quite a bit in my stay. We bounced ideas off each other and he was a great tech.

    “Striker‘s Conn-Pod is acting up, we could really use an extra pair of eyes.” Without a second thought, I looked up at said Jaeger when I stepped inside the hanger.

    “Sure, I‘m on my way up.” I told him, heading towards where we keep special suits that we had to wear when working in the conn-pod.

    I wasn’t sure what exactly what was wrong with her but, I didn’t want to get injured or electrocuted by Striker so I played it safe and slipped into a suit much like a Ranger’s drive suit. It was the safest thing to be wearing when possibly tampering with the Drift equipment.

    I made my way up to Striker’s head and once I got there, I noticed they had a crowbar wedging the door open. I was about to flip out on one of the tech’s working near the door when the head tech walked up to me, hands in the air in innocence.

    “We had to wedge the door open, she wouldn‘t even let us inside.” I sighed, checking for damage before bending under the bar and stepping inside the pod.

    Only one other tech was inside the pod, checking the Drift equipment. I took a quick scan around before turning back to the head tech.

    “Put your best analysts on running virus scan‘s on Striker‘s OS, could be a cold.” I stated, walking to where I knew one of Striker’s many circuit breakers was at. I had to crouch down on the floor to pop it open.
   
    “Will do.” He called in, not actually stepping inside.

    “And have someone go get my toolbox from my locker.”

    “Got a screwdriver?” I asked the other man in the room. He pulled one off his tool belt and tossed it to my without a word. I caught the piece from the air and waved it.

    “Thanks.” I said, counting the breakers and checking to see if any of them were blown.

    After a few minutes, the head tech came back, my smallest toolbox in hand. It had my common tools I used on Striker.

    “Here you go.” He said, kneeling beside me.

    We started our brainstorming process but, I felt certain that with all the things jerking about that it was a virus in the OS somewhere.

    “The Hansen‘s want a report, sir.” The tech that had been inside with us had stepped out and then called back in from the outside. The head tech looked at me and I gave him a nod.

    “Go ahead, I‘ll let you know if I need anything.” I said. He nodded as well, rising to his feet slowly and headed out.
   
    Just as he straightened his back from stepping under the bar, red lights and sirens started going off inside the pod. My heart started racing as my gaze swept the pod before looking back out at the also stunned techs.

    Emergency Protocol in affect

    The robotic voice stated smoothly as the doors started creeking, trying to shut. And the crowbar was old and rusty. It only took a few seconds before it was bending like a twig.
   
     “The doors!” Someone shouted from the other side just as I jumped to my feet, trying to make a run for it.

    But it was too late. The crowbar snapped and Striker’s door slammed shut, sealing and locking. I could barely hear the pounding of fists against it over the still going sirens.

    Prepping for suit synchronization.

    “Shit, shit shit!” I shrieked, starting to really freak out.

    I moved back to the breaker box, trying to find the one that would open the doors again, or completely shut the pod down. But of course, it wasn’t the right box.

    “Lila? What the hell is going on in there?” Swooping around, I looked for Chuck, hearing his voice and quickly realizing he must be talking from the LOCCENT room.

    “It‘s recognizing my suit and is trying to link me.” I shouted, hoping he could hear me.

    “You can‘t sync with Striker alone!” He answered, sounding distressed.

    “Let me think, Chuck.” I said, rubbing both my temples as I paced around the room.

    As I passed the hookup Chuck usually used, I was stepping just close enough that it reached itself out and grabbed ahold of my suit. It quickly locked in my boots and sealed up the nerve spine on my suit.

    A scream escaped my lips as a sharp spark of electricity was shot through my whole system. My suit wasn’t an actual drive suit, not suitable for fighting or Drifting.

    “Shut her down!” I heard Chuck shout, he must have left his mic on.

    “Dammit.” I gritted as I reached up with a shaky arm, touching a few of the controls on the upper panel. The more I moved, the less the suit shocked me until it quit all together.

    “Lila, no!” I knew Chuck could see the controls start to be turned on as he protested but, I knew what this meant.

    Neural handshake. 10 seconds.

    I started up the Jaeger just like I had in the simulations. Striker may be a newer model, but the layout was consistent. I manually turned off all comm traffic to LOCCENT as I slowly prepped myself for neural linking with this Jaeger.

    5.

    My body shook slightly with fear and anticipation. It had been years since I Drifted. And this time I would be Drifting with no one.

    4.
   
    This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve Drifted in a real Jaeger. When I was in the Academy, I had Drifted with another canidate, Marissa Jose. The Jaeger short circuited on her side and the Jaeger ended up seizing up her suit. It took them hours to get her free from the Jaeger.

    3.

    It also wasn’t my first time Drifting alone.

    2.

    I had stumbled across Glory Ranger while snooping around the Academy by myself. They had her sitting in a large warehouse, covered by the biggest piece of tarp I’d ever seen. With a single touch, the whole piece of material fell from the Jaeger and there she stood.

    At 290 feet, she was a monster of a Jaeger. It was painted black and silver with the PPDC symbol painted in bright white right on the chest. Now that I thought of it, it looked a lot like Gypsy, more humanoid than any other Jaeger made. The visor was cut out in a perfect golden strip. She was beautiful.

    There was a ladder installed onto the Jaeger that lead from the feet all the way to the shoulders. I climbed every wrung until I got all the way to the top, where I walked over to the head. All I did was place my hand on the cool metal of the visor, and the whole Jaeger reacted like I plugged in a light.

    I remember the emergency hatch opening and me crawling inside the Conn-Pod. There was one suit hanging beside the usual opening and I excitedly slipped it on, not taking into account how perfect it fit me, and stood on the foot grips. They locked in the suit’s boots and the back piece connected to my mechanical nerve spine on the suit.

    When the Marshall had found me, I was running around the warehouse in the Jaeger like a mad woman. He quickly ordered me out of the Jaeger and I underwent weeks of test. I never told the boys about it, only that the tests were for ‘girl stuff’.

    1.

    It had been a miracle. I was the first to pilot a fully sized Jaeger without a single medical problem, no neural overloading, and no co-pilot.

    I could handle the neural overload.

    As the Jaeger sucked me into the Drift, it was like a picture book of my life.

    Summers spent with my grantparents.
   
    My mom, dad and I decorating for Christmas.

    My dad trying to give me ‘the talk’ when he found out I had a crush.

    Baking with my Nana.

    Hunting elk with my Pawpaw.

    August 10th 2013, the worst birthday ever.

    The funerals that followed.

    Jaeger Academy.

    Raleigh stepping up to the guy trying to beat me up while Yancy asked me if I was alright.

    The three of us spending all of our free time together.

    Raleigh’s lips felt so warm and welcoming on mine.

    Glory Ranger.

    Graduating with the boys, and top scores.

    Raleigh was never really interested in Naomi from the start.

    Continuing my Jaeger and Kaiju training while Yance and Rals were assigned Gypsy Danger.

    Getting to work on Gypsy for the first time.

    Helping in the LOCCENT room on Gypsy’s first run.

    4 total successful drops.

    Knifehead.

    Yancy’s screams.

    Grief stricken anger.

    “Now, Raleigh!”

    “Get her out of there!”

    The voice that shouted wasn’t coming from the soft Drift. It was from somewhere outside.

    “Lila!” Hearing my name still couldn’t drag me from the memories.

    “Let go of the Drift, Lila.” This voice sounded familiar, warm and concerned. I was suddenly pulled back deep into the Drift.

    “What’s a little girl like you taking on the biggest guy in the class, huh?” the guy around my age asked me. His bright blue eyes were mischievous as he repressed his ice pack to his bleeding lip. He was trying so hard not to smile, since I knew it had to make that cut sting.

    “Holding my own.” I stated simply, reaching to scratch my glued stitch of my forehead.

    He reached a hand out to stop me from making it bleed again and held onto my hand a little too long.

    “Well, feisty, My names-

    “Raleigh..” I breathed his name softly as I started coming out of it again only to be dragged back into it again.

    “Rals and I can deal with him, if you want us to.” Yancy offered honestly, motioning to his also heated brother. Raleigh gave a curt nod as his lips were tightened in a thin line in anger.

    The LOCCENT trainer had been particularly hard on me when I messed up using the simulator for the first time. He’d told me I never should have graduated from the Academy and that I should just demote myself to cleaning staff.

    The tears threatened to come again and Yancy let out a pained sigh as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side as he rubbed my arm comfortingly.

    “You’re a great student. I want you to go back in there tomorrow and show him that he should be the one on cleaning duty.” I nodded a few times before rubbing my nose clean on one of Raleigh’s discarded shirts and threw it towards the pile of dirty clothes.

    “Show him what your made of.” I looked up at Yancy, and his comfortingly bright smile brought a small one to my lips. A single stray tear fell from the corner of my eyes.

    “Yance…”

    I could feel the hot streak of the tear down my face.

    “Come out of it, sweetheart.”

    There was that familiar voice again, trying to lull me from my memories. I wanted to give into the voice but I was pulled under again. And I could tell that this was the last Drift memory that Striker would let me relive.

    Our practice stick flew around each other like birds fighting. We were swinging to make hits, but were never landing any. My anger fueled the strength behind my hits as Raleigh’s were his usual calm power, which was just as strong.

    “Relax, Lila.” Raleigh’s usually calm voice calmed me down as well but it only made me madder as I nearly knocked his stick from his hands.

    “Did you seriously just tell me to relax, Rals?” I spat out as we stepped back from each other and circled around the padded ring.

    “What right do you have to punch a guy in the nose when he tries to kiss me?!” I shouted, leaping towards him, my stick ready strike his exposed left side.

    But, of course, he knew it was coming and countered it as we went yet again into another folly of attacks. We were perfectly Drift Compatible, after all, I learned that the second we had our first brawl. This anger fueled mess just proved how strong it was.

    “I thought he was going to hit you.”

    After not talking to him for days, ignoring him during class and avoiding being partnered up with him, that was the explanation he was giving me for ruining my first kiss?

    “That‘s your excuse?” I asked incredulously, taking several deep breaths when we stepped back from each other again.

    “Your so ridiculous!” I shouted, getting in close to his defenses and striking his hip hard. His blue eyes bore themselves deep into my grey ones.

    He didn’t let the pain I knew he was feeling from his hip show on his face as he waited for my next move. Rals dropped his stick and took the full effect of my stick that was aimed for his head with his bare hands.

    Ripping the stick from my hands, it went clanking across the floor and cracked against the wall. I just stood there, my fists balled at my sides as I glared hard at him.

    “You’re the ridiculous one, Lila, and blind.” His obviously frustrated tone shook my anger loose as he took a step towards me.

    “What are you-”

    My question was stopped when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me hard towards him. One of his hands found it’s way into my hair while the one that gripped my wrist tightly wrapped around my waist. And his lips pressed roughly against mine.

    All of our anger and frustration for the other fueled the lip lock. Soon his hand moved from my hair to graze my neck and cup my chin and his arm loosened around my waist. My hands found their way around his neck as the kiss softened..

    “Lila, listen to my voice.”

    One of my favorite memories ended as I followed the voice and I finally could feel my real fingers wiggle and my own eyes start to flutter open.

    “Lils?” I knew that voice.

    I turned my head slightly to look at the Ranger that was holding my head in his lap. The deep concern and stress on his face made him look older than his dad. Reaching up a still wobbly hand, I touched his cheek softly with my gloved hand. He took my hand and pressed it against his cheek, leaning into. Like he needed that touch to survive.

    “Chuck…” I croaked out, my throat feeling scratchy.

    “Hey there.” He breathed out, letting a small laugh escape with it.

    “What were you thinking?” He asked, searching my eyes for answers.

    As I tried to sit up, a wave of nausea and dizziness struck me hard. It rocked my back against Chuck’s chest as he pulled me away slightly to get a look at my face.

    “I‘m fine.” I breathed, closing my eyes as the dizziness threatened to cause me to faint.

    “You could have died.” Chuck said, his fear and concern not hidden in his voice.

    When I tried to reassure him again that I was alright, it never came out because I was finally pulled into the blackness that was edging my mind since I left the Drift.

    SOOOOO!!! :D You loved it right?? This is probably one of my favorite chapters! Stay tuned next Thursday for the next update! But.. If i get some really nice comments and votes, I'll happily update earlier :3